Today’s sketch was of Billy Wilder’s classic comedy Some Like it Hot and the image that immediately came into my head was the final scene on the boat.
Osgood: I called Mama. She was so happy she cried! She wants you to have her wedding gown. It’s white lace. Daphne: Yeah, Osgood. I can’t get married in your mother’s dress. Ha ha. That-she and I, we are not built the same way. Osgood: We can have it altered. Daphne: Oh no you don’t! Osgood, I’m gonna level with you. We can’t get married at all. Osgood: Why not? Daphne: Well, in the first place, I’m not a natural blonde. Osgood: Doesn’t matter. Daphne: I smoke! I smoke all the time! Osgood: I don’t care. Daphne: Well, I have a terrible past. For three years now, I’ve been living with a saxophone player. Osgood: I forgive you. Daphne: [Tragically] I can never have children! Osgood: We can adopt some. Daphne/Jerry: But you don’t understand, Osgood! [Whips off his wig, exasperated, and changes to a manly voice] Uhhh, I’m a man! Osgood: [Looks at him then turns back, unperturbed]Well, nobody’s perfect!
It’s funny I was finding myself frustrated that the “don’t remind yourself rule” because I couldn’t remember what kind of dress Jack Lemmon was wearing when the big thing about the scene I forgot that Osgood was wearing his naval voting outfit.
This week I decided to watch were deconstructions of the samurai genre one American and one Japanese. To be honest my plan was to watch a film I’d been curious about and then found something good to pair it up with.
I’d been hearing interesting things about Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai since it came out so I’d been looking forward to check it out. I’d always assumed that it was some sort of Gangster urban drama with samurai overtones and while it is it is so much more. Forest Whitaker plays the titular character, a mysterious hit man who lives by the way of the samurai. He serves as the “retainer “ of a mid level Mafioso, named Louie, who saved his years ago. Despite finding Ghost Dog’s services useful, Louie is not quite sure of what to make of this master servant relationship. When Ghost Dog’s latest hit on a made man gets “complicated” Louie’s superiors put a contract out on him and things get… interesting.
This was an interesting and at times almost surreal film that I found endlessly fascinating to watch. Whitaker himself is great playing Ghost Dog as quiet and cultured as if he doesn’t have to prove anything.
The world Ghost dog lives in is almost a fairy tail version of the inner city with strangely clownish cartoon watching mobsters, Haitian ice-cream vendors and mysterious pit bulls that show up out of nowhere just to stare at you.
My second film on the lineup, Twilight Samurai by Yoji Yamada was nothing like what I expected. I suppose it’s because whenever I see the word samurai in a film’s title I automatically assume it will be an action film with the hero kicking ass and taking names. To my surprise In fact this is a bigger deconstruction of the samurai genre than Ghost Dog is.
It is the tag end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Samurai class has evolved from it’s original warrior status to a primarily bureaucratic one. Senbei is a destitute widowed samurai working in a desk job in the department in charge of smoked cod. He is nicknamed “Twilight” because instead of going out to party with his colleagues he goes home to spend time with his daughters and working on sidelines to make ends meet.
When being reunited with a childhood friend leads to a duel with her drunken ex husband his superiors start taking an interest in him.
This is a surprisingly quiet slow paced film with only two action scenes (okay three). Rather then go for the usual action scenes it focuses more on Seibei’s day-to-day life, something that while hard is still loving and nurturing. Any of the fights that Seibei is forced to participate in are a threat to this. Something his superiors are unable to understand.
Part of me was wanting to have the Jets and the Sharks walking down the street looking a little bit more menacing, but this is West Side Story and the song and dance is expected just as much as the inevitable tragedy.
I have mixed feelings about just how well West Side Story holds up today. The magnificent score and choreography come off a bit cheesy today clashing with the otherwise realistic setting and perhaps this is me being too much of a fan of The Wire but parts of it feel naive and almost quaint.
Could some one do a good modern version of Romeo and Juliet set in the inner city? Hell yes! and I can’t wait to see it.
For today’s sketch I will say one thing in my defense… Pulp Fiction has way to many iconic scenes!
Ultimately I decided to go with the “miracle” scene giving Jules & Vincent a more shocked expression than they did in the movie where at that moment seemed to be more confusion.
Maybe I should have done the Jack Rabbit Slim’s Twist contest.
This one just came almost fully realized (barring a brief composition snafu) this scene doesn’t actually happen in the movie but this was one of the first films where drawing and image that says what the film is actually about actually worked!
